Taking a byte of the Fox.

June 25, 2007 · by Matt Cox

Greetings one and all,

Each week across the North of the United Kingdom there's the largest computer markets in Europe. The markets cover eight (if I can count) cities across the north and thousands upon thousands of attendees... attend.

Greetings one and all,

Each week across the North of the United Kingdom there's the largest computer markets in Europe. The markets cover eight (if I can count) cities across the north and thousands upon thousands of attendees... attend.

On entering said computer markets (computermarkets.co.uk if anyone's interested), you get handed the publication 'NCM PC Monthly' which is generally full of ads, showing you the latest deals within these markets - however, I picked one up this weekend to find a columnist spreading his words of wisdom to the masses that read said publication.

Rather than write it all up, or try and give you a general idea of what he said, I've scanned the article for your entertainment.

Now, I was going to email this fellow and let him know there's a far better alternative available to Firefox, nevermind Internet Explorer. Also, that this alternative* is not just available on your PC, but your Mac and Linux computers, your mobile phones and PDAs and is powering the internet on your Nintendo Wii and DS (of which I witnessed many of each console being chipped at said event).

I was thinking, rather than just me write to 'byteman' - maybe we could all drop him an email. Or, if that's a bit over-the-top, maybe you could let me know what you feel is an important thing to mention to someone that you're trying to convert to Opera.

Comment away!

*that's Opera, if you're still wondering.0

Readers' comments 4

Left under the original article, as archived.

Kelson VibberMonday, June 25, 2007 10:51:15 PM
How old is this column? It mentions "this latest 1.5 version" and talks about waiting for IE7 to come out. Firefox 2 and IE7 came out last fall, so this article has got to be almost a year old.
Ice ArdorTuesday, June 26, 2007 1:25:57 AM
Not saying IE is good or anything, but you can prevent most internet attacks like hijacked homepages and most spyware threats. What I've done is set default security level to High, lowering it for sites you trust. Go to Tools..Internet Options..Security. Move the "Internet" slider up to High, move the "Trusted sites" slider to Medium High. Now add all of your sites that you trust and need javascript functionality to your list of "Trusted sites". By not visiting every site on the internet with low security settings, it greatly prevents against hijacking your homepage and receiving spyware.

You don't have to switch to Firefox just because you don't know how to use Internet Explorer safely. Nevertheless, it's difficult for Firefox to call itself secure when a hole is revealed every month and some security holes remained unpatched. Without taking security as seriously as Opera, fixing every hole immediately as they occur, Firefox is on its way to becoming the next Internet Explorer--the swiss cheese of all browsers.

I don't like the tone of byteman, but I'm not going to scream at him for being ignorant.

Opera shall never stoop to the level of this person, for byteman's entire article is focused on how IE and Microsoft suck. And then part of it is blatently wrong. How can Firefox beat Microsoft "hands down in every department" if Mozilla doesn't make a gaming console, an OS, a media player, or a .NET programming environment. Where did byteman once say "Firefox has session management for its tabs" or "Firefox has EXTENSIONS". That's what really blows me away. Byteman, go live a happy life, just stop writing crap journalism. Honestly, there's hundreds of people who have done a better job at what byteman's attempted.
Matt CoxTuesday, June 26, 2007 8:06:46 AM
Firefox 2 and IE7 came out last fall, so this article has got to be almost a year old.

Maybe byteman's clearing a backlogue of pre-written articles, because this was published in the 'May/June 2007' issue.

Byteman, go live a happy life, just stop writing crap journalism. Honestly, there's hundreds of people who have done a better job at what byteman's attempted.

Maybe so, but the man's still got a large audience.
Espen André ØverdahlTuesday, June 26, 2007 10:14:26 AM
I wrote an email to David Storey, Chief Web Opener, and informed him. I'll let you guys know what he aims to do with it.